New Release – Necromancer (album) by Anyone’s Ghost
The solo project of songwriter Wanda Roslyn, Anyone’s Ghost first emerged from Manchester (UK) in 2019, immediately making an impact with delicate, solemn songs that touch on themes of romance, mystery and murder. Born from a love of moody folk and gothic literature, the music of Anyone’s Ghost is a blend of poetic lyricism, patient guitar playing and rich, oceanic soundscapes. Her album ‘Necromancer’ will be out 20st July. A pre-save is available here.
“‘Necromancer’ is an album about allowing yourself to feel anger and resentment. Acknowledging your capacity for selfishness and letting that feeling hold you for a while. There’s a line in my first EP that says “I am allowed resentment only when it’s gentle”. I don’t feel that way anymore. Since I released that song, I have lived through a lot of things that have made me justifiably angry. The album is a space to allow myself to be a bad person, allow myself to express vitriol and pain and discomfort whilst also having self compassion during that time. It’s a closure of the last three years, all the different people I have been and known.”
“I am always writing songs about things that are happening to me while I am still living them, and I feel like I am always living through something. Several songs on this record touch on dark experiences I know will be hard for some people in my life to hear. Tracks like ‘Ancestor’, which refers to my family, and ‘Killed For You’ which details a complex affair in a marriage that was not my own, are sure to incite difficulty in my personal life. My music has always been very much concerned with my own personal experiences and feelings. I have never cared much for how others perceive it – I just want to make something that I feel accurately captures what is happening around me. If my listeners understand these feelings too, then that is wonderful, but ultimately ‘Necromancer’ is a record that cares more for authenticity than empathy.”
“In the closing track ‘Lux Lisbon’, I am referring directly to The Virgin Suicides, dir. Sofia Coppola. I felt particularly drawn to that film over the years in which I wrote ‘Necromancer’. I feel there’s an innate femininity to the rage and fleeting mania I felt during this time, and that same stifled hurt and disdain for life is so vividly portrayed in that film. I felt very much like ‘Lux Lisbon’, trying to find comfort in desirability, sexuality, passivity. I wanted to be loved, so deeply that I sacrificed myself. I felt almost like I was paying tribute to her in that song, trying to express my understanding and sympathy.”
“What are you doing here, honey? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets.”
And it was then Cecilia gave orally what was to be her only form of suicide note, and a useless one at that, because she was going to live: “Obviously, Doctor,” she said, “you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides”
“To me, this album is an embrace of a stronger sound I always envisioned my music adopting when I used to daydream about how an Anyone’s Ghost record might sound. I have evolved from working alone in a way that felt very much self enclosed. I embrace collaboration with my live band, Michael Webster and Max Macmillian, who both provide additional production and instrumentation on this record. Authenticity and emotion is important to me, and the additional perspective Max and Michael provide is the perfect soundscape for a piece that is a time capsule of a deeply painful and invigorating time of my life. Writing these songs over the last few years has given me an outlet for hurt, a place to explore feeling without shame. As I wrote on ‘Ancestor’ – “An evil thought, but I have it all the same”. I no longer feel so isolated in my musical soundscape, and I am unafraid to express emotion in a way that allows others to build on it rather than siphon it away from me as I felt both during and while leaving the abusive relationship which provided the backdrop for writing both this record and my previous EP.”
